We jump at the chance to meet our grantees in person and were thrilled to catch up with several of them at the recent AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) meeting in San Diego (April 5-9). We know, medical research conferences may not seem too interesting, but for us – they’re the perfect chance to get in front of all of the scientists studying cancer to let them know what we’re doing here at ALSF, the progress that our research funding is helping to make and how they can be a part of finding cures for kids with cancer. The more brilliant minds we have committed to the field, the faster we’ll find those cures!

In addition to meeting up with a bunch of our grantees, several of which joined in our National Lemonade Days social media campaign by taking photos with our Lemonade Days sign (

Finally, we were so pleased to also meet one of our hero families while in town, Dave and Anita Garmo. Dave and Anita are the parents of Julia Garmo who is a charming, sweet and energetic 6 year old fighting neuroblastoma. 

So what did we take away from AACR 2014? Hardworking researchers, incredible supporters and inspiring hero families - not a bad day's work!